THE SHAPING OF THINGS TO COME
Judges isn't over. The rest of the book contains the fall of faith in Israel. A transition of sorts. Micha's mother seems to be the turning point:
Jg 17:1 And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
2 And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.
3 And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.
4 Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.
5 And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. {consecrated: Heb. filled the hand}
6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
From a human standpoint, a king, it seems, would have set down the law and made people obey. Yet God said he wanted to be their only king, had set down the Law and they refused to obey. "There was no king in Israel, but.." that connection would read "so" instead of "but" if the lack of human king were the reason for disobedience, We already know from the very beginning of the Bible that human disobedience is our nature, not a quirk. A king, an Earthly manager, serves merely to keep down or repress our evil urges, usually by force of arms. God gave His orders and had again and again repressed the people with invaders and then Judges instead of kings. The last judge we studied, Samson, was like the people in that he also gave sway to his urges, his lusts. God still used him, but thereafter, the people seem to have taken his lead in thinking it was okay to act without restraint and God would still bless them. This despite his example of being blinded and led into bondage by his lust.
7 And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
8 And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. {as he...: Heb. in making his way}
9 And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.
10 And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in. {a suit...: or, a double suit, etc: Heb. an order of garments}
11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
12 And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
13 Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
We have the blend of both churches now, the worship of idols with the worship of God thanks to the false priest who sells the false blend for money.
God gave Israel a spoiled judge who lived a fallen life even as God loved him and then, in the end, he took his own life with the lives of the invaders' leaders. An act which must have offended God as much as it served Him.
Now the worship of idols blends completely with the worship of God. Forgotten are the ark's stone tablets with these words carved in them:
Ex 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. {bondage: Heb. servants}
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
(KJV)
Does it ever seem possible to those who take the track of mixing God and any other form of worship that they are following Satan not because he wants their worship but because God has plainly written that they are inviting sin into their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren? A generational curse that can only be broken by the acceptance of Christ. Does it dawn on those who carry icons into the church that they are idols? It did to the Anabaptists.
Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia (copyright 1993, 1994):
During the 16th-century Reformation in Europe, the Protestant Anabaptist, or Christian Brethren, movement flourished in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and other countries. The basic belief of the Anabaptists was in adult baptism, but they also supported the separation of church and state and voluntary church membership. While there was no direct development from the Anabaptists to the growth of the Baptist churches in England, it is very likely that the latter were influenced in their beliefs and attitudes by the continental Brethren.
Many of the denominations that emerged after the Reformation were attempts to revive the church by returning to 1st-century conditions described in the New Testament. Such was the aim of Anabaptists, Baptists, Quakers, Methodists, Moravians, and others.
http://www.anabaptists.org/history/what-is-an-anabaptist.html
"In her study, Anabaptists: Separate by Choice, Marginal by Force, Elizabeth Scott notes:
"The Anabaptists of central Europe evolved in a time of social and religious chaos, developed unique ideas concerning the church and state, and retained a wildly radical view of society.
"The teachings and way of life of the Anabaptists, according to the Anabaptists themselves, were merely ways of trying to reinstate the true church, a church of true believers. It did not seem this way to the Magisterial Reformers or to the Roman Church, however. It was those very teachings and acts that made the Anabaptists into the object of numerous persecutions at the hands of both church and state.
"The historiography of the Anabaptists...is largely hostile to them and their teachings. It remains one of the largest problems in modern scholarship to separate the hostility of their biographers from the circumstances of Anabaptist existence.
"The impulse to join and remain within a society of martyrs is certainly hard to pinpoint.
In their earliest years, many of the Anabaptists were followers of Zwingli in Zurich.
Their unique model of what Church and society could become, if politics and fear were placed as subservient to love and community, stand as witness to the possibilities of a voluntary church, and the possibilities of a free society."
It was infant baptism which anabaptists found deeply wrong because they believe in the personal acceptance of Christ as savior and the choice to be baptized in His name. They saw their baptism as the only baptism, infant baptism not really applying.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-28/1525-anabaptist-movement-begins.html
Anabaptist Distinctives
"These believers didn’t want to merely reform the church; they wanted to wholly restore it to its initial purity and simplicity. Such a church, they held, consists only of people who present themselves to be baptized.
"Congregationalism was another key belief. The Anabaptists could find no justification for elaborate church bureaucracies. Decisions should be made not by a hierarchical leader but by the entire local assembly. In fact, the Anabaptists were the first to try to practice democracy in the congregation.
"Another central teaching was the separation of church and state. The church, they said, is to be composed of free, “uncompelled” people. The state is not to use coercion on people’s consciences.
"Jesus taught the way of nonviolence, the Anabaptists believed, and so pacifism became another important feature of their lives. Even the hated Turks must not be fought with a sword. By obeying Jesus’ clear commands, his followers should be distinct from society, even a society claiming to be Christian.
"Didn’t Luther and the other great Reformers see the wisdom of the Anabaptists? They didn’t—partly because they thought the Anabaptists’ theology was amiss, partly because the Anabaptists seemed disorderly. In one extreme case in Münster in 1534–5, Anabaptists came to power and took up arms (temporarily throwing aside their taboo on violence), practiced polygamy (citing Old Testament precedents), and claimed bizarre revelations from God. To both Catholics and Protestants these extremes justified persecuting the Anabaptists, executing them by fire or sword or drowning."
Anabaptists wanted an apostolic church. They wanted the idols out of the church. Apparently they were paying attention when they read the history of Israel. And the words of Paul:
2 Co 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
(KJV)
The way of the flesh.
Understand this which bears repeating, the Bible tells us the great truth of human history: our flesh is fallen and doomed to repeat it's sins over and over even as Satan repeats his temptations over and over though they may be dressed in other clothes. Israel's history is the same sad course as every nation though it was chosen by God to be a nation. The people follow God for a time then backslide
into sin, wallow in it like hogs in slop, then are so low they face destruction only to repent and then be saved by God only to start that cycle all over again. Nations that don't know God, that don't accept Him or his Son, fall by the wayside never to return. Empires crumble under the false doctrine of the rich seeing the world of limited resources and deciding they must horde the resources to themselves, explaining that they are rich because their faith is stronger or their god is greater than others. ignoring the fact nature reveals God as Paul said in Romans 1.
A cycle exists. Israel repeats it, first worshiping gods, even the false one created by Micah. then later when Christ arrives, worshiping the Law instead of the One who gave it.
Any and every thing can be an idol and men will inevitably find a way to idolize any and every thing.
Always. Throughout history.
And those churches have existed side by side since the founding of Christ's church,
We see Ephesus churches that once loved Jesus go cold and turn into places where there is song but no worship, attendance but no fire.
We see Smyrna churches with members slaughtered by Romans, Catholics, other Protestants, pagans, Communists, Muslims. And clinging to their love of Christ.
We see Pergamos churches with compromises. They edged toward Balaam behavior. False doctrine infected the Catholicism with infant baptism, icons, Mary deification; spread to the early Protestant movement that needed Anabaptist corrections: found its way into false teachings on the gifts and on the notions of health and wealth even today as New Age beliefs come packaged in Emergent Church clothing.
And Thyatira churches who not only have false doctrines invading but are tolerant of them. Rob Bells' stint in Grand Rapids seems to inculcate all that even as the Catholic church of the Borgias we mentioned recently.
Sardis was spiritually dead. Unlike Ephesus that lost it's love and Pergamos and Thyatira struggling to follow proper doctrine, all those things apparently conspired in Sardis to quench the Spirit, though some still had that life in them. A few. These churches can still have hundreds running up and down the aisles. Sometimes the ones dead to the Spirit get filled by other spirits that thrill but have no real life in them. They have healing that save bodies but do not elevate the soul. A Skip Heitzig says in You Can Understand the Book of Revelation: "They did empty labor with no life in it. They spent their time on endless, dead activity. While some saw them as great-they had the reputation-God saw then as an empty lifeless shell." Still there were some there, then and now, worthy of the warning message who would repent.
We see Philadelphia churches, founded on God's word and surviving not on their grandeur or money but on faith alone, there in the hard times and the good, still there over the years even as Philadelphia itself has survived. If they retain their love, if they live in that first love for the Savior, they are never poor or hurting or lost even in torture and death for those are temporary even as the condition of people lost to sin is made permanent by physical death, and the Second Death involving spiritual death unto physical death.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_107.cfm
Don Stewart :: What Is the Second Death, or Eternal Death?
"There is a third type of death in Scripture that is different from spiritual death and physical death. This is known as eternal death, or the second death. In the Book of Revelation we read.
"The one who has an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death (Revelation 2:11).
"Unless spiritual death is reversed in this life, the result will be eternal death. This is unending separation between God and all who reject Him.
Believers Not Affected
"Believers are not affected by the second death.
"Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years (Revelation 20:6).
Lake Of Fire
"The final judgment, or the lake of fire, is the time when the second death occurs.
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death (Revelation 20:14).
"The second death is reserved for unbelievers. Those who experience this death are all those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life.
"But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death (Revelation 21:8).
Eternal Death
"Eternal death, or the second death, is the ultimate form of separation. If a person dies in a state of spiritual death, they enter eternity separated from God. This is the second death. Once a person has experienced the "second death" there is no hope for them, it is irreversible.
Summary
"Physical death is the separation of the body from the spirit. Spiritual death, the way all of us are born, is the spiritual separation of each of us from God. Eternal death, or the second death, is the eternal separation of a person from God. There is no escape from the second death."
Laodicea was lukewarm. They had bad water in their location but an excellent trade route so a city grew there. They had to pipe in water from nearby Colosse, which got its' water from the snowmelt of mountains and from Hierapolos which had hot springs and spas. But by the time water from either source reached Laodicea the temperatures had moderated to luke warm and the water was seen an unrefreshing to drink in that condition. Jesus used that analogy to sum up the empty church which blended God with other gods and arrived at a namesake religion, fooling their flock into thinking they could worship Dianna and God and have their spiritual life the way they wished. They forgot the jealous God part. Our creator demands that we love him as such, as our CREATOR, our ONLY Creator. Or be lost forever.
The lost. The Danites of the time of Judges were lost. They had no inheritance in the land so they sought to find a place of their own. The tribe sent out five spies to see if there was anywhere in the land they might make a home for themselves. The spies arrived at Ephraim and found there the false religion of Micah and the priest who served it. They had no training in the Word; it seems never to be read during this time which speaks to all of us about the importance of that simple act. (Numerous sources have pointed out that we in the USA are blessed with the.Word, the Bible being our all time best seller. Yet it is one of the most unread books. George Bush the elder once said that his son, George W., was the "only person I know who has read through the whole Bible twice." I suspect, since he knows Billy Graham, the former President meant "only lay person" but it still speaks volumes about our level of Christian commitment.) They asked the priest for a prediction of them finding a home and without seeking after God (the text reveals no pause kin him giving them their blessing.) the priest says they will find a place. The spies discover a tribe totally at peace, away from the rest of the warring tribes, isolated by mountains. They return, gather six hundred armed men and go off to war against the unsuspecting peaceful people.
But first the spies get them to stop at Micah's home and steal all the accoutrements of the false religion. And the priest. This is important. You can set up a false religion and worship how you like but it is vital to have a religious leader. E B White for the Jehovah's Witnesses, Smith for the Mormons, Hubbard for the Scientologists. And the Levite had dollar signs in his eyes. He went from being the private guru to the new pope of the Danites. His former "owner" came after him with his neighbor to back him up and the Danites chased Micah away.
Jg 18:27 And they took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people quiet and secure, and smote them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with fire.
28 And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Beth-rehob. And they built the city, and dwelt therein.
29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.
30 And the children of Dan set up for themselves the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.
31 So they set them up Micah's graven image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
(ASV)
Philips/Lowth/Whitby/Lowman commentary:
Judges 18:30
Set up the graven image: Together with the molten, no doubt, and made use of the ephod and teraphim here, as Micah had done in his house; fancying, I suppose, it was by a Divine direction from this oracle, that the five men had such good success when they went to spy out his land (ver. 5, 6).
Jonathan, This was the name of the Levite who came along with them.
Son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, So not only the Hebrew, but the Chaldee, and the LXX(Septuagint) (both in Roman edition, and in that of Basil, and in the Palatine MS as Hottinger observes), which will not let us doubt it is the true reading: though the Vulgar hath put Moses instead of Manasseh, according to an idle conceit of some of the rabbins who say, the letter nun, in the middle of the word is not written even with the rest, but suspended above the rest of the letters, to show, that though he was indeed the son of Moses, yet he should rather be called the son of Manasseh, because he did the works of Manasseh, and not of Moses; that is, was an idolater. So Kimchi (as the same Hottinger observes), who therein follows the Talmudists, in Bava Bathra. (See his Thesaurus Philologicus, lib. 1, cap. 2. quaest, 4; and Bartoloccius, in his Kirjath-sepher, tom. 1. p. 114). And thus they made this Jonathan to be the grandchild of Moses, for Gershom was his son: but it is not likely he would have been left in so poor a condition, if he had been so nearly related to their great lawgiver; nor would he have had so ill an education. And, being now but a youth, it is not probable that he was the son of Gershom, but of some other, who had the name of this famous ancestor given him, though his father's name was Manasseh: but it is wholly uncertain from what family of the Levites this man was derived; and these names, no doubt, were common to more than those who first bare them.
Were priests of the tribe of Dan. Of that part of the tribe who settled her at Laish.
Until the day of the captivity of the land. Some cavillers have endeavored to frame an argument from hence, that this book was written in later times, after the ten tribes were carried away by Salmanassar; or, as some of the Jews in Seder Olam interpret the "captivity of the land," to signify that by Nebuchadnezzar; but Kimchi and Ralbag very well object against this, that it is altogether unlikely these images should have been suffered to continue in the days of David; who was a man after God's own heart, and set himself to advance the true religion to the utmost of his power, all the country over, from Dan to Beersheba: therefore Kimchi, with great reason, concludes, that by the "captivity of the land" is meant the taking of the ark by the Philistines, and carrying it captive into the temple of Dagon: which is confirmed, as our famous Selden observes (Syntag. 1. De Diis Syris, cap. 2), by the next verse, which saith, that till Shiloh was destroyed these images remained. And this taking of the ark, the Psalmist expressly calls a captivity, when he saith Ps 68:35, "He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, &c, and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the enemy's hand." As for the interpretation of Ralbag, who takes this captivity to have been in the days of Jabin, king of Canaan, it is not worth confuting.
The false religion continues until it is purged during a time of crisis. It will always continue in a land of plenty and comfort, people certsin that god loves them despite their sins and will not correct them.
But the false religion continues outside the tribes as it did outside the churches as it does outside the churches. The false gods worshiped for themselves and the false gods worshiped side by side with God.
Judges ends with the horror story of a concubine who was seen as a wife to an Jew who was raped and savaged by Benjamites. THis is hiow far the men of Israel had fallen away from God:
Jg 19:20 And the old man said, Peace be unto thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street.
21 So he brought him into his house, and gave the asses fodder; and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink.
22 As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain base fellows, beset the house round about, beating at the door; and they spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thy house, that we may know him.
23 And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into my house, do not this folly.
24 Behold, here is my daughter a virgin, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not any such folly.
25 But the men would not hearken to him: so the man laid hold on his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go.
26 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light.
27 And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way; and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, with her hands upon the threshold.
28 And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going; but none answered: then he took her up upon the ass; and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place.
29 And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel.
30 And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider it, take counsel, and speak.
(ASV)
The Benjamites behaved like the men of Sodom. This scene could have been lifted from the story of Lot who we discussed earlier. Spiritual degradation led to moral degradation. The husband of gthe concubine did noi better. We assume it was her dead body he vivisected thoiugh it isn't made entirely clear. It does seem she struggled to get away and died n the doorstep after being raped and beaten repeatedly, but we are not told that openly. Assuming it so, even that doesn't account for the decision to send her body parts to the tribes around.
The shocking act wakes up the rest of Israel. They were lost in their revers, Dan lost in false religion, Philistines ruling and impeding the spiritual growth of the people this act incites the numb to wake up and see the mess they have made of their country.
But they never sought God before they chose to battle. Nor sought a judge or prophet for guidance.
Jg 20:1 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, unto Jehovah at Mizpah.
2 And the chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.
3 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpah.) And the children of Israel said, Tell us, how was this wickedness brought to pass?
4 And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was murdered, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.
5 And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about me by night; me they thought to have slain, and my concubine they forced, and she is dead.
6 And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.
7 Behold, ye children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.
8 And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn unto his house.
9 But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot;
10 and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victuals for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.
11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
12 And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is come to pass among you?
13 Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, that are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel.
14 And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
15 And the children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
16 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss.
17 And the men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
Now consider all this. They rise in anger, gather an army of all the other tribes, even Dan which is under that New Age religion, rise up to demand retribution only to learn they face a massive war against left handed opponents, something we talked about earlier as well in Judges. A southpaw fights differently from a righty and unless they have trained against one a soldier may fond himself having to defend odd angles of attack whereas lefties have often had scads of time fighting right handed opponents in training. Such a realization gives a boxer or a right-handed baseball pitcher pause.
So NOW they go to the Lord. Ever find yourself in that situation? Plunge into a fight or a business or a marriage and THEN ask God for guidance. He isn't going to magically remove you from the problem you have gotten yourself in. The opponent won't vanish. The wife will not magically turn sweet. Her mother will not turn into a sane person suddenly. Understand that God will do what He will do with the situation you have gotten yourself into. He will not necessarily bail you out. He will likely let you flounder your way through it. In this case, He lets those who have not sought Him out beforehand suffer the consequences of their actions.
18 And the children of Israel arose, and went up to Beth-el, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin? And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up first.
19 And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
20 And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.
21 And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day twenty and two thousand men.
22 And the people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day.
23 And the children of Israel went up and wept before Jehovah until even; and they asked of Jehovah, saying, Shall I again draw nigh to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And Jehovah said, Go up against him.
24 And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.
25 And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.
26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto Beth-el, and wept, and sat there before Jehovah, and fasted that day until even; and they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before Jehovah.
Now they come with fasting and prayer and genuine humiliation, having been beaten up in battle not realizing the Lord was sending them a message.
27 And the children of Israel asked of Jehovah (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
28 and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And Jehovah said, Go up; for to-morrow I will deliver him into thy hand.
Now when they are at their lowest, God gives to the humbled the victory.
29 And Israel set liers-in-wait against Gibeah round about.
30 And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.
31 And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to Beth-el, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
32 And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city unto the highways.
33 And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers-in-wait of Israel brake forth out of their place, even out of Maareh-geba.
34 And there came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they knew not that evil was close upon them.
35 And Jehovah smote Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty and five thousand and a hundred men: all these drew the sword.
36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted unto the liers-in-wait whom they had set against Gibeah.
37 And the liers-in-wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers-in-wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.
38 Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers-in-wait was, that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.
39 And the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.
40 But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to heaven.
41 And the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil was come upon them.
42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and they that came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst thereof.
43 They inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trod them down at their resting-place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.
44 And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor.
45 And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them unto Gidom, and smote of them two thousand men.
46 So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valor.
47 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four months.
48 And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the cattle, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire.
(ASV)
So naturally they face a problem they created by going into battle in the first place and they want to solve it with human hands, even as Laodicea wanted to solve the problem of God with human solutions of man made gods:
Jg 21:1 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.
2 And the people came to Beth-el, and sat there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore.
3 And they said, O Jehovah, the God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to-day one tribe lacking in Israel?
4 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings.
5 And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up in the assembly unto Jehovah? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up unto Jehovah to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death.
6 And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.
7 How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by Jehovah that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?
8 And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up unto Jehovah to Mizpah? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly.
9 For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.
10 And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones.
11 And this is the thing that ye shall do: ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, that had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13 And the whole congregation sent and spake to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace unto them.
14 And Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
15 And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that Jehovah had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
16 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?
17 And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not blotted out from Israel.
18 Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.
19 And they said, Behold, there is a feast of Jehovah from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Beth-el, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Beth-el to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
20 And they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards,
21 and see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
22 And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come to complain unto us, that we will say unto them, Grant them graciously unto us, because we took not for each man of them his wife in battle, neither did ye give them unto them, else would ye now be guilty.
23 And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they carried off: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and built the cities, and dwelt in them.
24 And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.
25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
(ASV)
I hope you noticed as few important things:
First, the tribes of israel made a pledge without consulting God. Some members of Benjamin behaved badly, so they struck out agains the whole tribe. They swore never to let their women marry into that clan then wiped out many of the women in the can i the heat if battle, then regreted tey had done such to their cousins, but found themselves bound by their oath to God. tnhey keep speaking and pledging before they act.
Second, they never consulted Jehovah about making the pledge nor about getting relief from that pledge. They had a clan of left-handed men who were looked down upon and now they wanted to provide them with wives and hou wonder of they resisted giving their daughters as much because these men were looked upon as cursed as they felt bound by their pledge. They perhaps didn't seek after jehovah since He had already given them orders that cost the lives of some of their comrades oin the way to victory. Suppose now he said the curse was lifted and THEY ad to provide their own daughters?
Third, recall Shiloh was mentioned before.
Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.
31 So they set them up Micah's graven image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
(ASV)
And where did the young women come from that Benjamin was allowed to pillage at the festival?
20 And they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards,
21 and see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
22 And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come to complain unto us, that we will say unto them, Grant them graciously unto us, because we took not for each man of them his wife in battle, neither did ye give them unto them, else would ye now be guilty.
A theater fan could hear someone from Seven Brides For Seven Brothers singing about Sobbin'
Women:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZyMc29QQK8
Okay, so humor gets the worst of me sometimes. And we won't even begin to consider the offensive sexism of the whole thing. We will point out it wasn't God's idea.
Shiloh succumb to false religion mix and the other tribes threw women from Shiloh to the Benjamins likely thinking God wouldn't have anything to say about it.
Laodicea succumb to a false mix and only a few were saved, will be saved.
This segment of Judges represents the end of the church age, the winding down and the preparation for a new kind of ruler. And a witness to testify to the new king and the true king.
1Sa 2:35 And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever.
(ASV)
Judges isn't over. The rest of the book contains the fall of faith in Israel. A transition of sorts. Micha's mother seems to be the turning point:
Jg 17:1 And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
2 And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.
3 And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.
4 Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.
5 And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. {consecrated: Heb. filled the hand}
6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
From a human standpoint, a king, it seems, would have set down the law and made people obey. Yet God said he wanted to be their only king, had set down the Law and they refused to obey. "There was no king in Israel, but.." that connection would read "so" instead of "but" if the lack of human king were the reason for disobedience, We already know from the very beginning of the Bible that human disobedience is our nature, not a quirk. A king, an Earthly manager, serves merely to keep down or repress our evil urges, usually by force of arms. God gave His orders and had again and again repressed the people with invaders and then Judges instead of kings. The last judge we studied, Samson, was like the people in that he also gave sway to his urges, his lusts. God still used him, but thereafter, the people seem to have taken his lead in thinking it was okay to act without restraint and God would still bless them. This despite his example of being blinded and led into bondage by his lust.
7 And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
8 And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. {as he...: Heb. in making his way}
9 And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.
10 And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in. {a suit...: or, a double suit, etc: Heb. an order of garments}
11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
12 And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
13 Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
We have the blend of both churches now, the worship of idols with the worship of God thanks to the false priest who sells the false blend for money.
God gave Israel a spoiled judge who lived a fallen life even as God loved him and then, in the end, he took his own life with the lives of the invaders' leaders. An act which must have offended God as much as it served Him.
Now the worship of idols blends completely with the worship of God. Forgotten are the ark's stone tablets with these words carved in them:
Ex 20:2 I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. {bondage: Heb. servants}
3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
7 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
(KJV)
Does it ever seem possible to those who take the track of mixing God and any other form of worship that they are following Satan not because he wants their worship but because God has plainly written that they are inviting sin into their lives and the lives of their children and grandchildren? A generational curse that can only be broken by the acceptance of Christ. Does it dawn on those who carry icons into the church that they are idols? It did to the Anabaptists.
Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia (copyright 1993, 1994):
During the 16th-century Reformation in Europe, the Protestant Anabaptist, or Christian Brethren, movement flourished in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and other countries. The basic belief of the Anabaptists was in adult baptism, but they also supported the separation of church and state and voluntary church membership. While there was no direct development from the Anabaptists to the growth of the Baptist churches in England, it is very likely that the latter were influenced in their beliefs and attitudes by the continental Brethren.
Many of the denominations that emerged after the Reformation were attempts to revive the church by returning to 1st-century conditions described in the New Testament. Such was the aim of Anabaptists, Baptists, Quakers, Methodists, Moravians, and others.
http://www.anabaptists.org/history/what-is-an-anabaptist.html
"In her study, Anabaptists: Separate by Choice, Marginal by Force, Elizabeth Scott notes:
"The Anabaptists of central Europe evolved in a time of social and religious chaos, developed unique ideas concerning the church and state, and retained a wildly radical view of society.
"The teachings and way of life of the Anabaptists, according to the Anabaptists themselves, were merely ways of trying to reinstate the true church, a church of true believers. It did not seem this way to the Magisterial Reformers or to the Roman Church, however. It was those very teachings and acts that made the Anabaptists into the object of numerous persecutions at the hands of both church and state.
"The historiography of the Anabaptists...is largely hostile to them and their teachings. It remains one of the largest problems in modern scholarship to separate the hostility of their biographers from the circumstances of Anabaptist existence.
"The impulse to join and remain within a society of martyrs is certainly hard to pinpoint.
In their earliest years, many of the Anabaptists were followers of Zwingli in Zurich.
Their unique model of what Church and society could become, if politics and fear were placed as subservient to love and community, stand as witness to the possibilities of a voluntary church, and the possibilities of a free society."
It was infant baptism which anabaptists found deeply wrong because they believe in the personal acceptance of Christ as savior and the choice to be baptized in His name. They saw their baptism as the only baptism, infant baptism not really applying.
http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/issues/issue-28/1525-anabaptist-movement-begins.html
Anabaptist Distinctives
"These believers didn’t want to merely reform the church; they wanted to wholly restore it to its initial purity and simplicity. Such a church, they held, consists only of people who present themselves to be baptized.
"Congregationalism was another key belief. The Anabaptists could find no justification for elaborate church bureaucracies. Decisions should be made not by a hierarchical leader but by the entire local assembly. In fact, the Anabaptists were the first to try to practice democracy in the congregation.
"Another central teaching was the separation of church and state. The church, they said, is to be composed of free, “uncompelled” people. The state is not to use coercion on people’s consciences.
"Jesus taught the way of nonviolence, the Anabaptists believed, and so pacifism became another important feature of their lives. Even the hated Turks must not be fought with a sword. By obeying Jesus’ clear commands, his followers should be distinct from society, even a society claiming to be Christian.
"Didn’t Luther and the other great Reformers see the wisdom of the Anabaptists? They didn’t—partly because they thought the Anabaptists’ theology was amiss, partly because the Anabaptists seemed disorderly. In one extreme case in Münster in 1534–5, Anabaptists came to power and took up arms (temporarily throwing aside their taboo on violence), practiced polygamy (citing Old Testament precedents), and claimed bizarre revelations from God. To both Catholics and Protestants these extremes justified persecuting the Anabaptists, executing them by fire or sword or drowning."
Anabaptists wanted an apostolic church. They wanted the idols out of the church. Apparently they were paying attention when they read the history of Israel. And the words of Paul:
2 Co 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
(KJV)
The way of the flesh.
Understand this which bears repeating, the Bible tells us the great truth of human history: our flesh is fallen and doomed to repeat it's sins over and over even as Satan repeats his temptations over and over though they may be dressed in other clothes. Israel's history is the same sad course as every nation though it was chosen by God to be a nation. The people follow God for a time then backslide
into sin, wallow in it like hogs in slop, then are so low they face destruction only to repent and then be saved by God only to start that cycle all over again. Nations that don't know God, that don't accept Him or his Son, fall by the wayside never to return. Empires crumble under the false doctrine of the rich seeing the world of limited resources and deciding they must horde the resources to themselves, explaining that they are rich because their faith is stronger or their god is greater than others. ignoring the fact nature reveals God as Paul said in Romans 1.
A cycle exists. Israel repeats it, first worshiping gods, even the false one created by Micah. then later when Christ arrives, worshiping the Law instead of the One who gave it.
Any and every thing can be an idol and men will inevitably find a way to idolize any and every thing.
Always. Throughout history.
And those churches have existed side by side since the founding of Christ's church,
We see Ephesus churches that once loved Jesus go cold and turn into places where there is song but no worship, attendance but no fire.
We see Smyrna churches with members slaughtered by Romans, Catholics, other Protestants, pagans, Communists, Muslims. And clinging to their love of Christ.
We see Pergamos churches with compromises. They edged toward Balaam behavior. False doctrine infected the Catholicism with infant baptism, icons, Mary deification; spread to the early Protestant movement that needed Anabaptist corrections: found its way into false teachings on the gifts and on the notions of health and wealth even today as New Age beliefs come packaged in Emergent Church clothing.
And Thyatira churches who not only have false doctrines invading but are tolerant of them. Rob Bells' stint in Grand Rapids seems to inculcate all that even as the Catholic church of the Borgias we mentioned recently.
Sardis was spiritually dead. Unlike Ephesus that lost it's love and Pergamos and Thyatira struggling to follow proper doctrine, all those things apparently conspired in Sardis to quench the Spirit, though some still had that life in them. A few. These churches can still have hundreds running up and down the aisles. Sometimes the ones dead to the Spirit get filled by other spirits that thrill but have no real life in them. They have healing that save bodies but do not elevate the soul. A Skip Heitzig says in You Can Understand the Book of Revelation: "They did empty labor with no life in it. They spent their time on endless, dead activity. While some saw them as great-they had the reputation-God saw then as an empty lifeless shell." Still there were some there, then and now, worthy of the warning message who would repent.
We see Philadelphia churches, founded on God's word and surviving not on their grandeur or money but on faith alone, there in the hard times and the good, still there over the years even as Philadelphia itself has survived. If they retain their love, if they live in that first love for the Savior, they are never poor or hurting or lost even in torture and death for those are temporary even as the condition of people lost to sin is made permanent by physical death, and the Second Death involving spiritual death unto physical death.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/faq/don_stewart/don_stewart_107.cfm
Don Stewart :: What Is the Second Death, or Eternal Death?
"There is a third type of death in Scripture that is different from spiritual death and physical death. This is known as eternal death, or the second death. In the Book of Revelation we read.
"The one who has an ear, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death (Revelation 2:11).
"Unless spiritual death is reversed in this life, the result will be eternal death. This is unending separation between God and all who reject Him.
Believers Not Affected
"Believers are not affected by the second death.
"Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years (Revelation 20:6).
Lake Of Fire
"The final judgment, or the lake of fire, is the time when the second death occurs.
Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death (Revelation 20:14).
"The second death is reserved for unbelievers. Those who experience this death are all those whose names are not found written in the Book of Life.
"But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars - their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death (Revelation 21:8).
Eternal Death
"Eternal death, or the second death, is the ultimate form of separation. If a person dies in a state of spiritual death, they enter eternity separated from God. This is the second death. Once a person has experienced the "second death" there is no hope for them, it is irreversible.
Summary
"Physical death is the separation of the body from the spirit. Spiritual death, the way all of us are born, is the spiritual separation of each of us from God. Eternal death, or the second death, is the eternal separation of a person from God. There is no escape from the second death."
Laodicea was lukewarm. They had bad water in their location but an excellent trade route so a city grew there. They had to pipe in water from nearby Colosse, which got its' water from the snowmelt of mountains and from Hierapolos which had hot springs and spas. But by the time water from either source reached Laodicea the temperatures had moderated to luke warm and the water was seen an unrefreshing to drink in that condition. Jesus used that analogy to sum up the empty church which blended God with other gods and arrived at a namesake religion, fooling their flock into thinking they could worship Dianna and God and have their spiritual life the way they wished. They forgot the jealous God part. Our creator demands that we love him as such, as our CREATOR, our ONLY Creator. Or be lost forever.
The lost. The Danites of the time of Judges were lost. They had no inheritance in the land so they sought to find a place of their own. The tribe sent out five spies to see if there was anywhere in the land they might make a home for themselves. The spies arrived at Ephraim and found there the false religion of Micah and the priest who served it. They had no training in the Word; it seems never to be read during this time which speaks to all of us about the importance of that simple act. (Numerous sources have pointed out that we in the USA are blessed with the.Word, the Bible being our all time best seller. Yet it is one of the most unread books. George Bush the elder once said that his son, George W., was the "only person I know who has read through the whole Bible twice." I suspect, since he knows Billy Graham, the former President meant "only lay person" but it still speaks volumes about our level of Christian commitment.) They asked the priest for a prediction of them finding a home and without seeking after God (the text reveals no pause kin him giving them their blessing.) the priest says they will find a place. The spies discover a tribe totally at peace, away from the rest of the warring tribes, isolated by mountains. They return, gather six hundred armed men and go off to war against the unsuspecting peaceful people.
But first the spies get them to stop at Micah's home and steal all the accoutrements of the false religion. And the priest. This is important. You can set up a false religion and worship how you like but it is vital to have a religious leader. E B White for the Jehovah's Witnesses, Smith for the Mormons, Hubbard for the Scientologists. And the Levite had dollar signs in his eyes. He went from being the private guru to the new pope of the Danites. His former "owner" came after him with his neighbor to back him up and the Danites chased Micah away.
Jg 18:27 And they took that which Micah had made, and the priest whom he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people quiet and secure, and smote them with the edge of the sword; and they burnt the city with fire.
28 And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any man; and it was in the valley that lieth by Beth-rehob. And they built the city, and dwelt therein.
29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.
30 And the children of Dan set up for themselves the graven image: and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.
31 So they set them up Micah's graven image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
(ASV)
Philips/Lowth/Whitby/Lowman commentary:
Judges 18:30
Set up the graven image: Together with the molten, no doubt, and made use of the ephod and teraphim here, as Micah had done in his house; fancying, I suppose, it was by a Divine direction from this oracle, that the five men had such good success when they went to spy out his land (ver. 5, 6).
Jonathan, This was the name of the Levite who came along with them.
Son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, So not only the Hebrew, but the Chaldee, and the LXX(Septuagint) (both in Roman edition, and in that of Basil, and in the Palatine MS as Hottinger observes), which will not let us doubt it is the true reading: though the Vulgar hath put Moses instead of Manasseh, according to an idle conceit of some of the rabbins who say, the letter nun, in the middle of the word is not written even with the rest, but suspended above the rest of the letters, to show, that though he was indeed the son of Moses, yet he should rather be called the son of Manasseh, because he did the works of Manasseh, and not of Moses; that is, was an idolater. So Kimchi (as the same Hottinger observes), who therein follows the Talmudists, in Bava Bathra. (See his Thesaurus Philologicus, lib. 1, cap. 2. quaest, 4; and Bartoloccius, in his Kirjath-sepher, tom. 1. p. 114). And thus they made this Jonathan to be the grandchild of Moses, for Gershom was his son: but it is not likely he would have been left in so poor a condition, if he had been so nearly related to their great lawgiver; nor would he have had so ill an education. And, being now but a youth, it is not probable that he was the son of Gershom, but of some other, who had the name of this famous ancestor given him, though his father's name was Manasseh: but it is wholly uncertain from what family of the Levites this man was derived; and these names, no doubt, were common to more than those who first bare them.
Were priests of the tribe of Dan. Of that part of the tribe who settled her at Laish.
Until the day of the captivity of the land. Some cavillers have endeavored to frame an argument from hence, that this book was written in later times, after the ten tribes were carried away by Salmanassar; or, as some of the Jews in Seder Olam interpret the "captivity of the land," to signify that by Nebuchadnezzar; but Kimchi and Ralbag very well object against this, that it is altogether unlikely these images should have been suffered to continue in the days of David; who was a man after God's own heart, and set himself to advance the true religion to the utmost of his power, all the country over, from Dan to Beersheba: therefore Kimchi, with great reason, concludes, that by the "captivity of the land" is meant the taking of the ark by the Philistines, and carrying it captive into the temple of Dagon: which is confirmed, as our famous Selden observes (Syntag. 1. De Diis Syris, cap. 2), by the next verse, which saith, that till Shiloh was destroyed these images remained. And this taking of the ark, the Psalmist expressly calls a captivity, when he saith Ps 68:35, "He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, &c, and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the enemy's hand." As for the interpretation of Ralbag, who takes this captivity to have been in the days of Jabin, king of Canaan, it is not worth confuting.
The false religion continues until it is purged during a time of crisis. It will always continue in a land of plenty and comfort, people certsin that god loves them despite their sins and will not correct them.
But the false religion continues outside the tribes as it did outside the churches as it does outside the churches. The false gods worshiped for themselves and the false gods worshiped side by side with God.
Judges ends with the horror story of a concubine who was seen as a wife to an Jew who was raped and savaged by Benjamites. THis is hiow far the men of Israel had fallen away from God:
Jg 19:20 And the old man said, Peace be unto thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street.
21 So he brought him into his house, and gave the asses fodder; and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink.
22 As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain base fellows, beset the house round about, beating at the door; and they spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thy house, that we may know him.
23 And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into my house, do not this folly.
24 Behold, here is my daughter a virgin, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not any such folly.
25 But the men would not hearken to him: so the man laid hold on his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go.
26 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light.
27 And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way; and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, with her hands upon the threshold.
28 And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going; but none answered: then he took her up upon the ass; and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place.
29 And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel.
30 And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider it, take counsel, and speak.
(ASV)
The Benjamites behaved like the men of Sodom. This scene could have been lifted from the story of Lot who we discussed earlier. Spiritual degradation led to moral degradation. The husband of gthe concubine did noi better. We assume it was her dead body he vivisected thoiugh it isn't made entirely clear. It does seem she struggled to get away and died n the doorstep after being raped and beaten repeatedly, but we are not told that openly. Assuming it so, even that doesn't account for the decision to send her body parts to the tribes around.
The shocking act wakes up the rest of Israel. They were lost in their revers, Dan lost in false religion, Philistines ruling and impeding the spiritual growth of the people this act incites the numb to wake up and see the mess they have made of their country.
But they never sought God before they chose to battle. Nor sought a judge or prophet for guidance.
Jg 20:1 Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was assembled as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, unto Jehovah at Mizpah.
2 And the chiefs of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.
3 (Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpah.) And the children of Israel said, Tell us, how was this wickedness brought to pass?
4 And the Levite, the husband of the woman that was murdered, answered and said, I came into Gibeah that belongeth to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to lodge.
5 And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about me by night; me they thought to have slain, and my concubine they forced, and she is dead.
6 And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.
7 Behold, ye children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and counsel.
8 And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn unto his house.
9 But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot;
10 and we will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victuals for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.
11 So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
12 And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is come to pass among you?
13 Now therefore deliver up the men, the base fellows, that are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel.
14 And the children of Benjamin gathered themselves together out of the cities unto Gibeah, to go out to battle against the children of Israel.
15 And the children of Benjamin were numbered on that day out of the cities twenty and six thousand men that drew sword, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were numbered seven hundred chosen men.
16 Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at a hair-breadth, and not miss.
17 And the men of Israel, besides Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.
Now consider all this. They rise in anger, gather an army of all the other tribes, even Dan which is under that New Age religion, rise up to demand retribution only to learn they face a massive war against left handed opponents, something we talked about earlier as well in Judges. A southpaw fights differently from a righty and unless they have trained against one a soldier may fond himself having to defend odd angles of attack whereas lefties have often had scads of time fighting right handed opponents in training. Such a realization gives a boxer or a right-handed baseball pitcher pause.
So NOW they go to the Lord. Ever find yourself in that situation? Plunge into a fight or a business or a marriage and THEN ask God for guidance. He isn't going to magically remove you from the problem you have gotten yourself in. The opponent won't vanish. The wife will not magically turn sweet. Her mother will not turn into a sane person suddenly. Understand that God will do what He will do with the situation you have gotten yourself into. He will not necessarily bail you out. He will likely let you flounder your way through it. In this case, He lets those who have not sought Him out beforehand suffer the consequences of their actions.
18 And the children of Israel arose, and went up to Beth-el, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin? And Jehovah said, Judah shall go up first.
19 And the children of Israel rose up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah.
20 And the men of Israel went out to battle against Benjamin; and the men of Israel set the battle in array against them at Gibeah.
21 And the children of Benjamin came forth out of Gibeah, and destroyed down to the ground of the Israelites on that day twenty and two thousand men.
22 And the people, the men of Israel, encouraged themselves, and set the battle again in array in the place where they set themselves in array the first day.
23 And the children of Israel went up and wept before Jehovah until even; and they asked of Jehovah, saying, Shall I again draw nigh to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother? And Jehovah said, Go up against him.
24 And the children of Israel came near against the children of Benjamin the second day.
25 And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.
26 Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto Beth-el, and wept, and sat there before Jehovah, and fasted that day until even; and they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings before Jehovah.
Now they come with fasting and prayer and genuine humiliation, having been beaten up in battle not realizing the Lord was sending them a message.
27 And the children of Israel asked of Jehovah (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,
28 and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And Jehovah said, Go up; for to-morrow I will deliver him into thy hand.
Now when they are at their lowest, God gives to the humbled the victory.
29 And Israel set liers-in-wait against Gibeah round about.
30 And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.
31 And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to Beth-el, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
32 And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them away from the city unto the highways.
33 And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal-tamar: and the liers-in-wait of Israel brake forth out of their place, even out of Maareh-geba.
34 And there came over against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore; but they knew not that evil was close upon them.
35 And Jehovah smote Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty and five thousand and a hundred men: all these drew the sword.
36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were smitten; for the men of Israel gave place to Benjamin, because they trusted unto the liers-in-wait whom they had set against Gibeah.
37 And the liers-in-wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers-in-wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.
38 Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the liers-in-wait was, that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.
39 And the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.
40 But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to heaven.
41 And the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that evil was come upon them.
42 Therefore they turned their backs before the men of Israel unto the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and they that came out of the cities destroyed them in the midst thereof.
43 They inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trod them down at their resting-place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.
44 And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valor.
45 And they turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon: and they gleaned of them in the highways five thousand men, and followed hard after them unto Gidom, and smote of them two thousand men.
46 So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valor.
47 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness unto the rock of Rimmon, and abode in the rock of Rimmon four months.
48 And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the cattle, and all that they found: moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire.
(ASV)
So naturally they face a problem they created by going into battle in the first place and they want to solve it with human hands, even as Laodicea wanted to solve the problem of God with human solutions of man made gods:
Jg 21:1 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.
2 And the people came to Beth-el, and sat there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore.
3 And they said, O Jehovah, the God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to-day one tribe lacking in Israel?
4 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the people rose early, and built there an altar, and offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings.
5 And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up in the assembly unto Jehovah? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up unto Jehovah to Mizpah, saying, He shall surely be put to death.
6 And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.
7 How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by Jehovah that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?
8 And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up unto Jehovah to Mizpah? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabesh-gilead to the assembly.
9 For when the people were numbered, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead there.
10 And the congregation sent thither twelve thousand men of the valiantest, and commanded them, saying, Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones.
11 And this is the thing that ye shall do: ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.
12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins, that had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13 And the whole congregation sent and spake to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace unto them.
14 And Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead: and yet so they sufficed them not.
15 And the people repented them for Benjamin, because that Jehovah had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.
16 Then the elders of the congregation said, How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?
17 And they said, There must be an inheritance for them that are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe be not blotted out from Israel.
18 Howbeit we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, Cursed be he that giveth a wife to Benjamin.
19 And they said, Behold, there is a feast of Jehovah from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Beth-el, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Beth-el to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.
20 And they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards,
21 and see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
22 And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come to complain unto us, that we will say unto them, Grant them graciously unto us, because we took not for each man of them his wife in battle, neither did ye give them unto them, else would ye now be guilty.
23 And the children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of them that danced, whom they carried off: and they went and returned unto their inheritance, and built the cities, and dwelt in them.
24 And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.
25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
(ASV)
I hope you noticed as few important things:
First, the tribes of israel made a pledge without consulting God. Some members of Benjamin behaved badly, so they struck out agains the whole tribe. They swore never to let their women marry into that clan then wiped out many of the women in the can i the heat if battle, then regreted tey had done such to their cousins, but found themselves bound by their oath to God. tnhey keep speaking and pledging before they act.
Second, they never consulted Jehovah about making the pledge nor about getting relief from that pledge. They had a clan of left-handed men who were looked down upon and now they wanted to provide them with wives and hou wonder of they resisted giving their daughters as much because these men were looked upon as cursed as they felt bound by their pledge. They perhaps didn't seek after jehovah since He had already given them orders that cost the lives of some of their comrades oin the way to victory. Suppose now he said the curse was lifted and THEY ad to provide their own daughters?
Third, recall Shiloh was mentioned before.
Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land.
31 So they set them up Micah's graven image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
(ASV)
And where did the young women come from that Benjamin was allowed to pillage at the festival?
20 And they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards,
21 and see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
22 And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come to complain unto us, that we will say unto them, Grant them graciously unto us, because we took not for each man of them his wife in battle, neither did ye give them unto them, else would ye now be guilty.
A theater fan could hear someone from Seven Brides For Seven Brothers singing about Sobbin'
Women:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZyMc29QQK8
Okay, so humor gets the worst of me sometimes. And we won't even begin to consider the offensive sexism of the whole thing. We will point out it wasn't God's idea.
Shiloh succumb to false religion mix and the other tribes threw women from Shiloh to the Benjamins likely thinking God wouldn't have anything to say about it.
Laodicea succumb to a false mix and only a few were saved, will be saved.
This segment of Judges represents the end of the church age, the winding down and the preparation for a new kind of ruler. And a witness to testify to the new king and the true king.
1Sa 2:35 And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever.
(ASV)
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